FBC Daily Devotional – December 3, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Friday morning to you. We've come to the end of yet another week and time marches on.

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We're coming close to the Lord's Day on this Friday. The weekend is upon us and we get to gather together on Sunday and worship the

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Lord together. And just as a reminder, in our church we're shifting our schedule a little bit beginning this

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Sunday through the winter months, December through March. We have an afternoon service instead of an evening service.

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So we'll do a regular Bible study Sunday school time at 930, then the morning service at 1030, and we follow that with a lunch time together.

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And this particular Sunday we're having a potluck meal and you know, so forth. And then that lunch time followed at a one o 'clock with a one o 'clock afternoon service.

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And that service lasts about an hour. And then when that service is done, we're done for the day.

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And that kind of helps us deal with these dark evenings, you know, when it gets dark at five o 'clock.

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And you know, later on as winter progresses, it gets so cold and nobody wants to go out when it's dark and cold outside.

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But it also gives us great opportunity for fellowship together to have these weekly times around the table and get to sit with different people and chit -chat and so forth.

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So just as a reminder that that begins this Sunday, December 5th. Psalm 135 is a psalm that begins with an emphasis on calling us to praise the

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Lord over and over again. He says, praise the Lord, praise the name of the Lord, praise

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Him, you servants of the Lord. You who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of the Lord, praise the

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Lord, for He is good. The Lord is good. Sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant.

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So over and over again, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Why? Why should we do that? Well, within that opening series of calls to praise

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Him is one reason, because He's good. And later on in the text, He explains some ways in which the

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Lord has shown His goodness. But then you get to verse 5 and He makes a statement, the psalmist makes a statement that explains another reason why the

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Lord is worthy of our praise. He says, for I know that the Lord is great.

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I know that the Lord is great. Well, again, it's easy to make that statement.

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And the word great is somewhat relative, isn't it? I mean, in the sense that, you know, we say so -and -so is a great football player.

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Well, OK, you know, so he can catch a ball well, or he can run fast, he can run well.

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Doesn't make him a great human being. He can be a great football player and be a terrible human being.

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OK, we can say someone was a great president. There have been presidents who were very good, great, but they were not very good husbands or fathers.

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Parents, you know, so, you know, great greatness can be somewhat relative.

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It can be limited to a particular arena of a person's life and so on. So to say that the

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Lord is great. Well, OK, well, how does He demonstrate His greatness? Ah, good question.

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The psalmist goes on to show us he expresses his greatness through his position of authority, because he goes on to say,

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Our Lord is above all gods. Our Lord is above all gods.

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Now, in reality, there are no other gods. Not really. There are gods of man's own making.

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And this is what the psalmist is later going to go into and talk about. He talks about in verse 15, the idols of the nations that are silver and gold, the works of men's hands and so forth.

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There are all kinds of idols that people make and gods that they make out of their stuff or out of their imagination, out of their desires and wishes.

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Yeah, all kinds of gods. But the Lord is great because He is above all gods.

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All other so -called gods are underneath Him. He also shows his greatness, we see in verses four and six, by the exercise of his sovereignty.

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He expresses his sovereignty in doing as he pleases and choosing whom he will.

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So listen to verse four. He says, For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,

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Israel for his special treasure. Well, this is an act of greatness that no one else can do.

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No one else can just unilaterally choose another person for his purposes, to shower his love on him or whatever.

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He can't unilaterally do that. It takes that other person's cooperation and so forth.

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Well, this wasn't the case here. The Lord just unilaterally chose Jacob and Israel as a special possession.

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And verse six goes on to say, Whatever the Lord pleases, He does.

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Anywhere and everywhere. Verse goes on to say, Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places.

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Whatever He wants to do, He does. And then He gives some illustrations of that. He says,

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He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain.

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He brings the wind out of His treasures. He does whatever He wants in the heavens and in the earth.

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And what He pleases, He does, choosing whom He will, even controlling the weather.

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He's showing His power and His sovereignty. And He shows His sovereign power in the effective deliverance of His people.

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Verses 8 through 12 talk about that. He destroyed the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast.

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He sent signs and wonders in the midst of Egypt. And He delivered His people, Israel, Jacob, whom

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He had chosen, delivered them out of Egypt. And there was not a thing in the world

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Pharaoh or the Egyptians or their army could do to stop the Lord from doing what

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He wanted to do. He is great in His sovereign power and authority.

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And the Lord's greatness is seen, furthermore, in that He exists in stark contrast to the man -made gods that do absolutely nothing.

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So verses 15 through 18 bring that out. Again, the idols of the nations are silver and gold.

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They're the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they don't speak. They have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears.

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They don't hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make those gods are like them.

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So is everyone who trusts in them. I'm reminded of a visit that my wife and I took several years ago now to Southeast Asia.

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And we were in Singapore and Malaysia. And all over the place, we would see these little shrines to,

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I think, to Buddha. Maybe to Hindu gods. I honestly can't remember which.

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But nevertheless, they'd be these little boxes, maybe, you know, 18 inches wide by two feet tall or whatever, some bigger, some smaller.

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But they'd have their little gold Buddha sitting in the middle of the box. And every day, people, whoever owned the shrine, would put some stuff in the box for Buddha.

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You know, some oranges, some kind of fruit, a banana or something like that for the god in the box.

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And here's the fascinating thing. There's that god sitting there. He's got his smile on his face, you know, and all the rest of that stuff.

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Here's a fascinating thing. The next day, those people have to go in that box, take out the old orange and put in another one.

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And that orange wouldn't even be touched. Wouldn't even be touched. If they left that orange in there and waited for the

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Buddha to eat it, it'd rot. Because that little statue has a mouth, but he can't eat.

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Never says a word. He just sits there, legs crossed, arms folded, doesn't do a thing, doesn't do a thing.

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Such are the gods of man's making, but not so our

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God. Bless the Lord, O house of Israel. Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron.

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Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord and praise the Lord. Why?

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Because he is great. He is not like the man -made gods of this world.

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Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. Well, I hope you do some of that today.

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And I hope that you'll gather together with God's people on the Lord's Day and worship him corporately in church together, as he has called us to come together to worship him.

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Why? Because he's great and he is good. Our Father, we do praise you today for your goodness.

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We praise you for your greatness. I pray and trust that we would truly indeed praise you.

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We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Have a good Friday and a wonderful weekend.